Wholeheartedly disagree. We can definitely help by telling OP to fire whoever it is that is "helping" with their taxes, since they clearly don't know what the fuck they are doing nor how to explain it.

college loans arent traditional loans b/c theres no collateral

The real travesty here is how shitty the NFPLA is at protecting non-stars.

Your job offers you an absolutely incredible amount of flexibility and PTO (compared to average Americans). If you like the work, you could use some of that free time and flexibility to find other ways to save/"make" money. Couponing, budgeting, deal hunting. Things like travel deals, maximizing your credit card points or loyalty points, etc. You could essentially be getting 5-10% return on every purchase you make in a year or buying the things you would be buying anyway but always at a discount.

Portland, Maine is not a med-high COL area. It below average COL. OP needs a budget and realistic life expectations. There's nothing in OP's post that says how much they are being paid compared to market value. Considering their absolutely huge perks, they've got total compensation close to $100,000 (they have 5 weeks PTO, so I'd estimate it's actually more than $100,000 total compensation).

Edit: I misread my source- Maine is overall lower than average. Portland is slightly above average. In 2018 when OP moved there, it was about average, maybe slightly above. Unless they bought their home in the last 12 months, they very likely made out like bandits buying a home using NYC salaries.

COL is not the problem for OP. They're making HCOL salaries and living in at WORST a medium cost of living area.

They’re mostly terrible movies with basically the same plot. They just rotate through actors that are popular at the moment. All the romcoms are getting made for streaming or direct to tv now aren’t they?

Yeah but we could also have just required those skyscrapers not be built with so much glass in the first place. Horribly inefficient but we did it for the aesthetics.

The western world (at least USA) is seriously addicted to air conditioning. There is a lot that can be done to control temperature in buildings, but many many many homes and businesses are cooled below 70F...it's ridiculous. We shouldn't be wearing sweaters to our offices in the summer.

They do generate a lot of pollution, but they are insanely efficient at transporting large amounts of cargo.

5% is an absolutely massive improvement.